HP X4000 Workstation

[900i]

Need help regarding above m/c, can't install from Live CD. Tried Mint 4 and 6, but no joy. Just wondering if anyone has experience with this hardware, it's at least 7 years old but has dual Xeon processors with Hyperthreading and Nvidia Quadro graphics. OpenSuse is installed on it at the moment but I want to replace it with Mint. Hardware is Linux certified according to HP site. Mint 4 dumps me to Busybox and 6 throws up allsorts of errors. Can be more specific if need be.

Thanks.

[Husse]

Post lspci -v
This way we should see hardware and kernel modules for it
But
The real-time kernel variant included in Ubuntu 8.10 does not include SMP support.
Edit - real-time kernel my mistake, that's not the normal kernel
That's what I got when I looked for SMP support in Intrepid, just to make sure How stupid of me
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810
However dual kernel is supported as far as I know.... strange
This may explain your problems

[900i]

Sorry to be so long in getting back to you Husse, This is what I get from a Fedora 10 install. Fedora and Suse are the only distro's I have tried that work with the Live CD install.

lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82860 860 (Wombat) Chipset Host Bridge (MCH) (rev 04)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1274
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
Kernel modules: i82860_edac

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82850 850 (Tehama) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 96
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
Memory behind bridge: d0000000-d0ffffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e0000000-efffffff

00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82860 860 (Wombat) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 32
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00002000-00002fff
Memory behind bridge: d1000000-d10fffff

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=04, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00003000-00003fff
Memory behind bridge: d1100000-d11fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 80000000-800fffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 04)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
Kernel modules: intel-rng, iTCO_wdt

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1274
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
[virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled]
[virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled]
[virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled]
[virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled]
I/O ports at 10e0
Kernel driver in use: ata_piix

00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM USB Controller #1 (rev 04) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1274
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
I/O ports at 10c0
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM SMBus Controller (rev 04)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1274
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 17
I/O ports at 10f0
Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c-i801

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 04)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1274
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
I/O ports at 1400
I/O ports at 1080
Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV36GL [Quadro FX 1100] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: nVidia Corporation Device 01da
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 40, IRQ 10
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: nvidiafb

02:1f.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82806AA PCI64 Hub PCI Bridge (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=02, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00002000-00002fff
Memory behind bridge: d1000000-d10fffff

03:00.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 82806AA PCI64 Hub Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 20 [IO(X)-APIC])
Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82806AA PCI64 Hub APIC
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at d1004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

03:08.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1010 66MHz Ultra3 SCSI Adapter (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1010
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 255, IRQ 23
I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
Memory at d1005000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Memory at d1000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sym53c8xx
Kernel modules: sym53c8xx

03:08.1 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c1010 66MHz Ultra3 SCSI Adapter (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1010
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 255, IRQ 19
I/O ports at 2400 [size=256]
Memory at d1005400 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Memory at d1002000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sym53c8xx
Kernel modules: sym53c8xx

04:06.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Accton Technology Corporation Device 5310
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at d1142000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

04:06.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 41) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Accton Technology Corporation Device 5310
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
Memory at d1143000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

04:06.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Accton Technology Corporation Device 5310
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 132, IRQ 20
Memory at d1145000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

04:09.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3114 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3114 SATARaid Controller
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
I/O ports at 3060 [size=8]
I/O ports at 3054 [size=4]
I/O ports at 3058 [size=8]
I/O ports at 3050 [size=4]
I/O ports at 3040 [size=16]
Memory at d1145400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 80000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sata_sil
Kernel modules: sata_sil

04:0a.0 Network controller: Texas Instruments ACX 111 54Mbps Wireless Interface
Subsystem: Texas Instruments Device 9069
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at d1140000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Memory at d1100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>

04:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 0c)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 1274
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 66, IRQ 21
Memory at d1144000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
I/O ports at 3000 [size=64]
Memory at d1120000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: e100
Kernel modules: e100

[900i]

Just done a Netinstall of Debian 5 and working as sweet as a nut, can't do with Fedora and Suse package management.

[Husse]

hmm - have you tried "Compatibility mode"?
A lot of nvidia cards can't use the open driver "nv" so you must begin with "vesa" (this is one of the changes in "Compatibility mode")
If the hard disk is connected to the RAID or scsi controller that can be it as well

[900i]

Sorry to take so long to get back to you Husse, yes I tried most things but have decided to give up and sell the beast. There's only one distro for me and that's Mint. It would probably work eventually but the m/c is too big and noisy, and I have got lazy in my latter years and just want a distro that works without messing about. My laptop is all I need. Thanks for your help.

[Husse]

noisy

That's no fun - my now reserve desktop is so noisy that the next door neighbours hear it

[900i]

Well Husse as you can see from my sig I have finally got the beast to run with Mint. I stripped all the hardware out of the box that was not a HP fitted part, like Sata controller , USB 2 card and extra dvd and zip drive. Then I fitted a standard IDE hard drive but was still only able to get Suse, Fedora and Debian to work. While playing about with a selection of hard drives I found that Hitachi was the one to go for and had success with both Mint 4 and 5. Anyway it's up and running with maxed out compiz effects and no signs of slowing. Not bad for a 7 year old workstation. So long as I keep the music volume up, I don't notice the noise from the 5 fans. Goes to show that you can get there in the end with a little perseverance.

[Husse]

You stumbled upon something that most people never heard of and probably would deny exists - there is a difference between different brands of hard disks down to installing different software